I've tried to study the visual objects in XCode but I dont understand which of them fits my need. What I need is something that corresponds to what in html is a DIV or any other html-element that can be used as a "container". Here is the description of my problem:
I need to display 3 container/areas in my app.
In each container I will put an unknown number of buttons. Its about dynamically created buttons.
In html I would have 3 DIVs. And then add/remove buttons from this divs when needed.
How can you do the same thing in Objective-C? I have read about drawRect or stuff like that. But is that the only/best way to do it? Isn't there an IU object that can be used for this?
Normally, the "container" would be the UIView. You can attach views to other views with:
[view1 addSubview: view2];
view2's frame will determine where it is located within view1. Since buttons and other objects are UIViews, as well, they are added as subviews.
It's a UIVIew but you shouldn't use it the same way you use a DIV.
It's absolutely essential that you understand the iOS interface paradigm. Please, do yourself a favor and read the HIG: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/userexperience/conceptual/MobileHIG/index.html
Related
I am trying to add a view on a UIButton inside IB. The only problem it doesn't allow me to put in inside the button only on top?
Is this not possible through IB or am I doing it wrong?
It's not possible in Interface Builder. You have to add it in code.
You should not do this:
Do Not Customize Controls by Embedding Subviews
Although it is technically possible to add subviews to the standard system controls—objects that inherit from UIControl—you should never customize them in this way. Controls that support customizations do so through explicit and well-documented interfaces in the control class itself. For example, the UIButton class contains methods for setting the title and background images for the button. Using the defined customization points means that your code will always work correctly. Circumventing these methods, by embedding a custom image view or label inside the button, might cause your application to behave incorrectly now or at some point in the future if the button’s implementation changes.
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/WindowsViews/Conceptual/ViewPG_iPhoneOS/WindowsandViews/WindowsandViews.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40009503-CH2-SW26
If you need to add a UIView on your UIButton you can achieve it in 2 different ways
The easy way is to follow Cyrille answer: you can do it programmatically because IB doesn't allow you to modify a UIBUtton adding a view on it
The hard way is to create your custom button (let me call it "MYCustomButton"), that extends a UIButton, and use it in your application. With this way when you need to modify the buttons in your interface, you can achieve it modifying the XIB of the "MYCustomButton".
I wonder which component is being used to create a selector option like the one used in iBooks where we can adjust the Font Size and also the Theme, but without moving to a new view controller.
In my application I would like to implement it giving 3 small options to the user to choose, but without moving the view controller being presented. Its a small square area with an arrow at the bottom or top side giving the impression where it's coming from. (Let me know if I am not clear with the explanation).
Does anybody know how to use it??
Thank you all in advance
ibooks is using UIView. In that UIView you can add any controls you like. You need to use delegate methods so that I can perform communication between two objects(send message to another object). You will be able to make you custom UIView as controls.
for an iPad application in ios5.0 and arc, I need to create a button that has an image covering the entire button, and needs to have another transparent image at the bottom half of this button image OR have the button text label covering the bottom half of this button image.
In posts on this site I've read that using button subclass to just change the appearance of the UiButton should not be done. However, if I don't subclass, can I add these transparent image/and shift the button label? if so, how?
In case I need to add properties to the button, what is the best way to go about it.
If subclassing is the only option, can you also pls give pointers on what are the methods that i must absolutely override and any other such memory/performance considerations that I must keep in mind
Pointers to Any tutorials or third party libraries would be most appreciated.. Thanks in advance for all your help
I don't agree on "subclassing UIButton is not good". That's exactly why inheritance and subclassing mechanisms exist. In all platforms, the framework provides a base foundation for general needs, and you do extend them in the case standard stuff does not satisfy your needs. And you do it by subclassing.
As long as you know what you do, and what you do works for you and solves your problem, you're fine.
When you subclass UIButton, depending on what you actually want to achieve, you may want to override init:, initWithRect:, layoutSubviews:, awakeFromNib: methods.
Inspecting some subclasses would also help:
https://github.com/ardalahmet/SSCheckBoxView
https://github.com/ardalahmet/CopyableCell
For UIButton, you can inspect this component. Source code may help a lot.
My application has a few portions that have really big buttons (640x130, 230x150, etc.) What I need is to have a way to update different portions of the button, with different text. Initially, I assumed that in my code I could create various UILabels and then add them as subviews to my button. However, as soon as I try to add a UILabel to the button as a sub-view, my app crashes.
What is the easiest way to create an overlay for a button, that I can completely layout myself, without preventing button taps from being interested using overlay controls?
I imagine there are multiple ways to solve this problem. However, the best solution for my case should use the fewest lines of code (I have quite a few of these types of buttons) and I'd like to be able to continue using some form of configurable button within IB.
I'm not opposed to subclassing UIButton but, if I do, I would like to be able to use it in IB. I've never created a custom UIView for such a circumstance, so I'd need help defining that type of subclass so that it will work correctly in IB.
You need to add the subview to the containing view - not the button. To ensure that is doesn't interfere with button presses, be sure to set it to:
[myCustomTextOverlay setUserInteractionEnabled:NO];
I created a UIScrollView.
I set up the dimensions and then I am trying to add UILabels.
However the labels are all white text (annoying because I have to change the property per label).
Is there a way to make all labels (new ones that are dragged from IB to the view) have a default text color of black?
Edited to match comments
I want to use IB as much as I can. Therefore I want to drag UILabel from the Library palette to the UIView. When I do this, the UILabel is set to white (default). I want the default color to be Black. I know I can do this programatically but I am trying to avoid that unless I really really need to.
There's no easy way to do exactly what you want. But what you can do is create a label with the properties you want, store it somewhere on the drawing board but not in the view, then duplicate it each time you want a new label instead of dragging on a new one. You can duplicate easily using option+drag.
I think the short answer is "no, there's not an easy way to do what you're describing."
The easiest way I can think of would be to create all your UILabels (with the default setting of white text), then control-click them all and set their text color all at once – all the other ways are less convenient, or would essentially require that Apple open-source Xcode or UIKit so that we can get at their internals.
Yes, there is a way. You could loop the subviews of the target view such as:
UIView * targetView;
[...]
for(id subView in targetView.subViews){
if([subView isKindOfClass:[UILabel class]]){
[subView setBackgroundColor:clearColor];
}
}
why do the labels have to come from the object library? You could get the functionality that you want by dragging only one UILable from the library to your view set all the properties to the defaults that you want and hit copy(command+c) once. Now you can paste(command+v) your UILabel with the special property values as many times as you want, IBActions and outlets will also be retained in the copys.
If you plan to tweak more involved properties than font color and size, then I would suggest a more custom approach that will require only minimul coding before you do the bulk drag and drop work in IB.
Subclass a UILable in Xcode, set all of your properties just once in a simple return method and than call this method from both "init" and "awakeFromNib" Now go back to IB and do all your drag/dropping making sure that the labels are of your subclass.
However, it is my opinion that if you are doing this a lot, especially if you will be doing something similar again in the future, you will save a substantial amount of time and energy to implement this "label factory" in code. Its likely less code than you are imagining it will be and the kicker is that you can reuse it in the next app. anyway thats my 2cents, Good Luck